5/19/15

Tuesday night in Flushing the Cardinals broke through with a 6 run 6th inning as they go on to beat the Mets 10-2. Jon Niese started for the Mets and just didn't have it. The Cards jumped out to a 4-0 lead on the Met lefty scoring single runs in the first four innings. Randel Grichuk had a huge game going 3 for 5 with a double, triple and 3 RBI. Mark Reynolds went 3 for 4 and hit his 3rd homer of the year off Niese in the 4th. The Mets appeared to be coming back against Michael Wacha in the 4th when Daniel Murphy stroked a two run home run off the netting on the bottom of the right field foul pole and it was 4-2, for Murphy his 3rd homer on the year. In the 6th the Cards broke the game open against Niese and Erik Goeddel scoring 6 times on 6 hits. Kolten Wong had a double and 2 RBI, Peter Bourjos had an RBI single, Grichuk had a 2 run double and Matt Holliday had a sac-fly. Niese had his worst outing of the year going 5 innings allowing 11 hits 8 runs (all earned) 1 walk and 1 strike out. Goeddel gave up 2 runs, the first 2 runs of the season. Wacha gets the win improving to 6-0. Niese falls to 3-4 as his ERA rises to 3.72. With the loss the Mets modest 3 game winning streak is over. They now stand at 16-5 at Citi Field and 23-17 overall. The Nats beat the Yanks as well so the Mets and Nationals are now tied atop the NL East. Wednesday night is game 3 of the series. Bartolo Colon (6-2 3.86) goes for the Mets, Carlos Martinez (3-2 4.72) goes for the Redbirds.

Niese does not appear to have an "out pitch". He is relying on Hitters getting themselves out--- and that's the biggest part of pitching.... but I don;t think he has the stuff to compete against deep lineups for many innings.